13 December 2007
Programs Prepare Women, Minorities for U.S. Political Careers
Training course encourages women to take that “first step”
Washington -- If there is such a thing as a “gender gap” in the United States, it is in the area of confidence -- especially confidence to run for political office.
“Women tend to think they need to be prepared,” says Jean Sinzdak project manager for Rutgers University’s Program for Women Public Officials.
“Men will wake up and say: ‘You know, I could run for Congress today.’ But a woman will say: ‘I want to learn how to run for Congress,’” Sinzdak told USINFO.
To encourage more women to take the first steps toward a career in politics, the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a national organization based at Rutgers, New Jersey’s state university, developed a training program called Ready to Run.
Offered once a year, the nonpartisan, one-day program is a crash course on how to position oneself for a political career, how to launch a campaign, how to do interviews and how to raise campaign funds.
Ready to Run was born 10 years ago, when CAWP, which tracks how many women hold political office in all 50 states, found that the state of New Jersey consistently was ranking in the bottom 10. But Ready to Run seems to have helped: New Jersey is now ranked 15th, according to Sinzdak.
“This year, we had an election in which every single [New Jersey] state legislative seat was up for election and a record number of women won seats,” Sinzdak said. “Over a quarter of the women who actually won seats -- there are 35 of them now -- were Ready to Run alumnae.”
ENCOURAGING MINORITY WOMEN
Although most of the approximately 850 women who have completed Ready to Run have been from New Jersey, women attend from all around the United States and from every age group, Sinzdak said.
More recently, Ready to Run has targeted the needs of minority women, specifically, Latinas, African Americans and Asian Americans.
Steering committees for the three groups, Sinzdak said, have found that the issues are the same: women need to be asked to run for office; they are afraid to take the first step on their own. What differs, she said, is the level of political sophistication.
According to Sinzdak, African-American women already have a strong presence in the political arena. CAWP statistics show that as of October, 12 of the 87 women serving in the 110th U.S. Congress are African American. Of the 1,734 women state legislators serving nationwide, 231 are African American.
African-American women hoping for a political career can take advantage of CAWP’s Run Sister Run, a program launched in 2007.
Latinas are slowly, but surely, entering American politics. CAWP reports that of the 87 women serving in 110th U.S. Congress, seven are Latina. Of the 1,734 women state legislators serving nationwide, 71 are Latina.
“For Latinas,” Sinzdak said, “one of the issues is finding common ground across different backgrounds -- there’s a big difference between Latinas from South America and Cuba, for example. They’re working on finding a common voice.”
CAWP’s program for Hispanic women, Election Latina, now completing its fourth year, addresses those needs.
South Asian immigrants, on the other hand, are pouring into New Jersey and have made strides in business and professions, but few have entered politics.
Nationwide, there are only two Asian-American women of the 87 women serving in the 110th U.S. Congress. Only 30 of the 1,734 women state legislators are Asian American.
In response to this data, CAWP in 2006 launched Rising Stars: Educating Asian American Women for Politics, a program aimed specifically at Asian-American women. The program was held March 16, the day before the more generalized Ready to Run program.
About 40 Asian-American women came to the program, which featured Asian-American women speakers who had been elected or appointed to political positions or who had worked on political campaigns.
“The women who were in the audience came up to us afterward and said, ‘This is so great! I never see Asian women in politics,’” Sinzdak reported.
One of the most important benefits of the minority-specific programs, Sinzdak said, “is the opportunity for people to see people who look like them and to find mentors and role models.”
The general conference for 2008 will take place March 15; the Election Latina, Run Sister Run and Rising Stars conferences are scheduled for the day before.
OTHER PROGRAMS
Other institutions also provide training programs for would-be women politicians. The Go Run training program, for example, was established in 2005 by The White House Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicating to advancing women in leadership roles.
Other programs have more specific agendas. The Susan B. Anthony List is nonpartisan but supports female political candidates who oppose abortion. The nonpartisan Women’s Campaign Forum, on the other hand, backs female candidates who support the availability of abortion.
Emily’s List supports Democratic female political candidates who support abortion rights; The Wish List backs Republican women candidates who support abortion rights.
More information on CAWP is available on its Web site.
